And they had muscle cars, some of them quite nice. And I was contemplating and wondering. Is our government REALLY in possession of alien artifacts? Unrelated: how badly were our soldiers betrayed in Vietnam? We won the war. But was the CIA secretly undermining us with one hand while supposedly helping with another? What secrets exist which we don’t even suspect?
These sorts of things will drive you to despair. There is no knowing. Oh, and I was wondering about the dilution of our national wealth by money creation.
Then it hit me: in spite of ALL THAT, we made some really awesome cars. I was looking at I think a Cobra or a Corvette (I’m a late 60’s Mustang convertible in that world, painted yellow or orange), and a sense of awe and gratitude came over me. In spite of everything bad (most of which exists mainly in our imagination), there are some really amazing things in this world, both natural and man made. The physicality of the car, the Done-ness of it, the completion, the this is something a group of men and women made at one time, really struck me.
Today, I am contemplating how one enjoys life. Every one of life’s pleasures is evanescent. They come and go. How can you enter into anything which won’t last? The answer, of course, is: what choice do any of us have? There is a cheese plate with some excellent wine being placed in front of you at every moment. You can say no, but why? That moment won’t last, but none of them do. And life is really just an endless succession of moments. I think in Buddhist theory they do consider time to be discontinuous, and this would be the sense in which this would be true.
The conclusion I have evolved–and you know maybe they should make a movie about this, with oh I don’t know maybe Jim Carrey–is that I need to practice saying Yes more often. I’m a grouchy old man, a badger in his lair, and that’s no way to grow older.
The sky shines for everyone. You can take it or leave it as you choose. You can enjoy where you are at and what you are doing all the time, or you can try and “spend” all your moments only in some times and places, hoping the outsized pleasure will make up for all the want.
I would argue though that when you practice enjoying everything, that can only expand the experience when something truly amazing happens, like Twue Luv.
The more I learn about personal growth, the more I realize how little I knew.